Austrian Filmaker Andreas Sulzer reports that he is close to exposing the largest secret weapons facility built by the Nazi's during WWII using slave labor from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. But according to reports other than having Historian Rainer Karlsch on as an advisor there is no indication that he is using a professional Archaeologists to conduct these investigations. As a result Austrian authorities have shut down his excavation pending further permitting. However Sulzer states that he believes they will be back excavating again in only a few weeks...

Today is the 1st page of a new 365 page book that only you can write. Others might annotate it, but only you hold the pen that fills your pages. Behind you are the closed and bound volumes of years past that fill the shelves of the Library Of Your Life. Don't spend another year aimlessly flipping through those worn and tattered old books on your shelves wasting your days with "...if only...", "...why didn't I?" and "I wish I would have started this then...".

Hester was a keystone in building the program at Arkansas where I eventually got my masters and where ShovelBums was born. It's a small field and we are interconnected in myriads ways. Never forget that. We all impact each other at some point. Make your impact positive for those who follow like Hester did.

On December 29, 1890 alongside Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota the US 7th Cavalry Regiment. The Lakota were following Chief Spotted Elk of the Miniconjou Lakota nation who had been called to the Pine Ridge Agency. The 7th Cavalry Regiment had met them part way and escorted the Lakota to Wounded Knee Creek to make camp. After reinforcements for the 7th cavalry arrived they encircled the Lakota and placed 4 rapid-fire Hotchkiss-designed M1875 Mountain Guns around the perimeter. After making camp the cavalry began to disarm the Lakota and while accounts vary as to the circumstances it is agreed that a gun was discharged and over the next half hour 150-300 Lakota men, women and children were killed including Chief Spotted Elk.

{Please Share} These blokes have been working at this for more than a year to get enough votes for this great idea for a dig in honor of Mick Aston. I think it's time we lend them a hand. Please follow the link at the bottom and vote.

Channel 4 to Commission a Special 'One-Off' DIG in memory of Mick Aston

Lee Brady

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Mick Aston sadly passed away on 24th June 2013, He featured in 19 out of 20 Series of the popular programme Time Team.

100 Years ago tonight a lesson was taught we can always learn from: Peace is possible when the power is left in the hands of the meek, the oppressed, and the weary.

As I tell my kids when they are fighting "We are all in this together." ~R. Joe

The Real Story Behind the 1914 Christmas Truce in World War I

It was 100 years ago this very night that something miraculous happened along the Western Front. After months of bitter fighting, soldiers on both sides gathered in no-man's-land in a spontaneous show of peace and goodwill. Here's what happened on that historic day — and why it marked the end of an era.

Image by Jim Cooke

In December 1914, the war was entering into a new phase: an extended siege fought along static trenches stretching along a 750 km (466 mile) front. During the previous four months, soldiers were killed at a horrendous pace, and with no end of the war in sight. But during Christmas, things suddenly became quiet — at least for a little while.

'We No Shoot!'

The night before Christmas, a British captain serving at Rue du Bois heard a foreign accent from across the divide saying, "Do not shoot after 12 o'clock and we will not do so either," and then: "If you English come out and talk to us, we won't fire."

Commonwealth troops fighting in Belgium and France started to hear odd sounds drifting from across no-man's land; German soldiers were singing Christmas carols like "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" ("Silent Night, Holy Night"). Allied troops applauded and cheered, shouting out for more. Soldiers on both sides began to sing in unison, trading verses in alternating languages.

Writing in his diary at the time, Regimental Sergeant Major George Beck made this note:

Germans shout over to us and ask us to play them at football, and also not to fire and they would do likewise. At 2am (25th) a German Band went along their trenches playing "Home Sweet Home" and "God Save the King" which sounded grand and made everyone think of home.

There comes a time when we all become part

of that which we always loved, the archaeological record. ~R. Joe

Please note: As of December 2014 the Ossuary is not yet fully live (bad pun intended). I started this project years ago but had to put it on the back burner during an upgrade and am only now getting back to it. I expect that after the annual field school directory comes online I will be able to get to opening this up in early 2015. So for right now the ossuary will only have a few manual entries.